Optical Cable Winding Detection with Light Waveguide
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Solution Overview
Problem
Optical detection systems struggle to accurately detect a white mark on a matt and dark cable moving at high speed in an airborne winch system, especially when water splashing creates optical disturbances, leading to false detections and missed signals.
Innovation Solution
An active optical detection system with a light waveguide is used to guide light between the detection device and the cable, minimizing water interference and enhancing reflection intensity, featuring a light source and a waveguide with a non-planar or concave end surface to improve light beam focusing and reduce spurious reflections.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If an optical sensor is positioned at a distance from the cable to ensure safe operation, then the detection reliability decreases due to weak reflected energy and water interference, but positioning closer increases the risk of water splashing affecting detection
Solution Approach 1:
A light waveguide is introduced as an intermediary component between the optical sensor and the cable. The waveguide transmits light from the sensor to the cable and collects reflected light, enabling the sensor to be positioned away from water-splashed zones while maintaining effective optical coupling with the moving cable surface.
Solution Approach 2:
The detection system transitions from direct line-of-sight optical detection to guided wave detection. By using the waveguide to channel light along a different spatial path, the system separates the sensor position from the detection point, allowing operation in dimensions unaffected by water splashing.
2Measurement precision
If the optical sensor uses a narrow light beam to improve detection precision, then the reflected energy from the cable surface becomes too weak to be reliably detected, but widening the beam reduces measurement precision
Solution Approach 1:
The light waveguide acts as an intermediary that efficiently channels both the outgoing light beam and the reflected light. This mediation allows the use of focused narrow beams for precision while the waveguide collects and directs the reflected energy to the sensor, overcoming the weak reflection problem.
3Productivity
If the winch operates at high speed to improve productivity, then the cable moves faster through the detection zone reducing detection time, but the detection system must respond faster and water splashing increases false detections
Solution Approach 1:
The waveguide provides a stable optical pathway that is less affected by the high-speed motion and water splashing. By mediating the light transmission, it allows the system to maintain reliable detection even when the cable moves rapidly through the detection zone.
Solution Approach 2:
The waveguide is pre-positioned to intercept the cable in the detection zone before water splashing becomes severe. This preliminary detection action occurs at an optimal point where the cable is still accessible but water interference is minimized, allowing accurate detection at high speeds.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The system effectively detects the white mark with reduced false positives and negatives, ensuring timely winch control and safe object recovery by maintaining a clear light path and enhancing reflection intensity.
Implementation Method 1
An active optical detection system with a light waveguide is used to guide light between the detection device and the cable
Implementation Method 2
featuring a light source and a waveguide with a non-planar or concave end surface to improve light beam focusing and reduce spurious reflections
Implementation Method 3
reduce spurious reflections
Data Source
AI summary
A system allowing automatic detection of the end of winding of a cable on a winch comprises an optical detector which emits, in the direction of the cable, a light beam which illuminates a given zone through which the cable travels in the course of its winding. The detector is associated with a specific marking, strongly reflecting, positioned on a section of the cable close to its end, such that, when this section enters into the zone illuminated by the detector, it reflects the beam in the direction of the detector which detects this reflected beam and which then signals that the cable is almost at the end of winding. The detector, placed in a fixed position at a given distance from the cable, is also associated with a light waveguide interposed between the cable and the optical detector.